NORTHAMPTON — As 17 school districts across the state share $625,000 in grant funds to carry out bell-to-bell cellphone bans, Attorney General Andrea Campbell sat down with Northampton High School students Tuesday to hear their thoughts on keeping a phone-free school.
The state’s top law enforcement officer joined students, city and school officials at the high school to announce her office’s distribution of a $50,000 grant to support the Northampton district’s cellphone-free policy, which was implemented this school year following a School Committee vote in June.
“I’ve noticed that it’s a lot more talking instead of doing work, which definitely has its own downside,” NHS senior Catherine Peters said of the school’s bell-to-bell phone ban. “Normally, if I was bored, I might like look at my phone or something instead of talking to the person next to me. Still not great, but it’s nice to talk to people.”
The funding, part of the state’s new Phone-Free School Support Grant program, will help 17 school districts cover the expenses associated with phone storage, staff training, program evaluation and other costs incurred while implementing a phone-free policy. It comes as lawmakers weight An Act to Promote Student Learning and Mental Health (S.2581), which would ban student use of cellphones and other devices in middle and high schools across Massachusetts.
“Northampton’s phone-free policy has been welcomed by students and teachers, and we’ve been delighted to hear that feedback. Right now, we all know that young people are facing a mental health epidemic, not just here in Massachusetts, but across this country,” Campbell said. “While they’re doing great work, we have, of course, work to do to address the mental health concerns we’re seeing all across the state. We’ve heard concerns about increased anxiety, cyberbullying, harassment and hate.”
Massachusetts school districts that have implemented full-fledged phone bans have reported increased student focus, improved peer relationships and reductions in cyberbullying, Campbell said.
Although bell-to-bell bans sometimes face scrutiny and concern from parents that they will not be able to reach their children in the event of an emergency, the attorney general said law enforcement and school faculty should be more than capable of protecting students.
“There’s concerns from some parents and young people, and maybe even educators, if there’s a safety drill, well, how will I reach my young person [in the event of a violent emergency]?” Campbell said. “It’s our job as adults, and of course, law enforcement and others, to protect our kids, and we will do that while ensuring they can learn in a distraction-free environment.”
While Tuesday’s roundtable discussions between students and Campbell and Liza Hirsch, director of the Children’s Justice Unit in the Attorney General’s Office, revealed an overall positive student sentiment about the new cellphone ban, some students said coordinating non-emergency plans has been complicated.
“It’s been really difficult trying to find a new way to communicate, especially when there’s something really difficult happening at home, or my sister needs to be watched after school,” said Alex Montague, referring to making arrangements with her mother during the school day. “But I do think that that’s a very small minority of people, and it can probably be fixed easily. There’s got to be solutions to it.”
Senior Henry Daggett demonstrated how to use the Yondr pouches, in which students must keep their phones locked away during the school day. He remarked that even though some students don’t use the lock function, the expectation that phones should be stored away contributes to a more social environment.
“If you were to walk into the cafeteria last year at lunch, it would just be a bunch of people on their phones, myself included, scrolling or playing a game,” Daggett said. “When you walk in this year, everyone’s kind of looking up at each other. Academically, it has probably helped students stay more focused in class. People are going to be on their computers or they’re going to be distracted, but you kind of have to be there socially with other people.”
In addition to supporting the student learning and mental health legislation, Campbell is pursuing a lawsuit against TikTok alleging the company knowingly designed its platform to be addictive and harmful to young users.
“This grant is just one way our office is addressing youth mental health and this crisis. We also are holding companies accountable, including social media companies that we know are putting profits ahead of our children’s well-being,” Campbell said. “We know that there is a magnetic pull that social media platforms have, and we know the devices in which they’re using these platforms are also addictive.”
Statewide efforts
In a separate initiative related to social media, the state is using $1.75 million in an attempt to help schools address the technology’s use and effects on young people.
Through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Safe, Healthy and Responsible Digital Life Grant program, schools can apply for funding and then use it for “age-appropriate” classroom instruction, materials, educator training and resources to help families support healthy social media use, according to the Healey administration.
“Our kids are growing up in a world that looks very different from the one we experienced, and schools and families need to work together to help students make healthy choices,” Education Secretary Steve Zrike said, invoking his experience as a parent of two teenagers. “These grants will give educators more tools to have those important conversations and help students develop the skills to stay safe online.”
Social media legislation is at a standstill on Beacon Hill and it’s unclear how or if lawmakers will move forward with a slate of varying proposals. Educators and advocates continue to warn about the harmful impacts of social media on kids; a national $17.1 billion settlement with Meta in August resolved claims that the company created and ran its platforms in a way that harmed young people and violated state consumer protection laws.
The House in April passed a bill (H 5366) banning kids under 14 from using social media platforms and requiring that platforms obtain parental consent for users ages 14 and 15. The proposal is embedded in a bill that would also ban student cellphone use in schools, which the Senate took up in a standalone bill. The Senate in July passed different social media regulations (S 3175) requiring all social media platforms to adopt “default” settings for minors that disable things including addictive feeds, “autoplay” and “infinite scroll” capabilities, and that turn off notifications during a period at night.
Healey proposed language in April that would require social media companies to deactivate certain addictive features and notifications and to limit platform use for users under the age of 18. She tucked it into a supplemental spending bill focused mostly on snow and ice removal costs.
The grant program is funded through a $2 million fiscal 2027 budget item meant for online safety and education, the administration said. The additional $250,000 will be used for reviewing instruction materials and developing educational videos and resources to help schools teach students about social media use and digital literacy.
Through the program, public school districts, charter public schools and educational collaboratives can apply for about 25 to 30 grants of up to $60,000 each, per the administration, which said the grants aim to teach students how to “recognize false or misleading information, including AI-generated content, protect their personal information, understand the risks of social media and cyberbullying, and make responsible decisions online.”
Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.
